Controversy over spiked antifascist speech dominates Italy’s Liberation Day anniversary

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini, joined the Italian president at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. This year’s Liberation Day anniversary was marked by a media storm over the decision by state-run RAI television to spike a planned monologue by an Italian author denouncing fascism and what he said was Meloni’s refusal to repudiate it.